Kindness
by Randomkid203
Summary: Murtagh is introduced to the concepts of kindness and friendship when a group from Camelot comes to discuss a truce between the two kingdoms. rated T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I own neither the Inheritance Cycle nor Merlin.

Blood and sweat dripped down the boy's face, a large bruise covered his right eye, he stood back up, grabbing his sword.

Morzan fought his ten year old son as he would an elf ten times his age, the boy fought back as best he could, ignoring his father's taunts. Each time the blunt sword struck him, he would let out a gasp of pain, and Morzan would call him weak, and Murtagh would fight back, biting back the pain and focusing on beating his father.

Eventually, the red sword found it's way to the boy's throat, and the word "Dead." escaped the owner's lips. A large gloved hand lifted the child up and struck his bruised jaw. Murtagh was then told to stand back up, and fight his father again.

By the time the sun had set, and it's red light was replaced by the soft white glow of the moon, Murtagh was told to go back to his chambers. Once there, where no one could hear, a strangled cry escaped his lips, and he watched from his window as the peasant children, one by one, went back to their homes, where a modest dinner was waiting, and he watched sadly as they hugged their mothers and ran inside to tell their fathers of all the imaginary lands they had conquered that day.

He then curled up on his bed and his small, thin frame shook as he cried for what he could not have. And that would be how his servant found him in the morning, as he did every morning, curled in a ball, with dark circles under his eyes that suggested he had not slept, his eyes would be red from crying, and the slightly older boy did what he could to comfort his master, as he did every morning, he then helped the boy clean the dried blood from his face, and told him that the king had summoned him.

Murtagh followed his servant to the throne room, and were it not for the fine clothes the younger boy was wearing, one might have thought that Murtagh was the servant. The king was waiting, sitting on his golden throne, with a crown sitting atop his head, and from the finery in the room, one would not imagine that the king's subjects slept on the floors of tiny dirt-houses, or that his most loyal follower's son was lucky if he got a scrap of meat for dinner.

"The king of Camelot will be coming to Alagaesia to discuss a truce," announced the king to the servants, Morzan, and the rest of the Forsworn as Murtagh stood back and listened. "They will arrive in one week, a feast shall be prepared to welcome those from Camelot. That is all, now leave." ordered the king, "Murtagh, stay."

Murtagh cast his servant, Darren, a helpless look, Darren smiled reassuringly as he left, leaving Murtagh with the ruthless tyrant. "Murtagh," said the king, "You are the only noble child in Uru'baen, so you will entertain young Arthur Pendragon and Morgana Le Fay, you are to be polite to the visiting children, and you will inform me or your father if they require anything." the king looked at the scrawny little boy with disdain and said, "Arthur is thirteen, and Morgana is eleven, you must make sure they are happy during their visit to Alagaesia."

"Yes, My lord." said Murtagh, not looking forward to the two noble children from Camelot coming to gloat about how great their kingdom was. He bowed quickly as he fled the room.

Over the next week, Murtagh trained only with Tornac, as his father was getting ready for the feast, Tornac helped Murtagh to improve on his sword fighting, though the kind old man was not as focused as he usually was, occasionally forgetting that his young pupil was there. The servants were the same, Darren told Murtagh that all the servants were in such a hurry to prepare the castle for the feast that his father had accidentally called him David.

On the day before the visitors from Camelot were scheduled to arrive, even Tornac was too busy to teach Murtagh, so he spent the day in the library reading and wondering what the visitors from Camelot would be like.

Morgana had, apparently, lost her father only a short time ago, and her mother had died when she was very small, according to a man who had been a servant to Gorlois, her father, she suffered from nightmares. That was one thing they had in common. He could assume that Morgana might be kind, Arthur, on the other hand, was probably prat.

The next day, Murtagh woke long before the sun rose, and could see the royal visitors entering Uru'baen through his window. He remembered being told that Arthur was an amazing swordsman, so Murtagh would undoubtedly be fighting his father as an amusing show for the prince. The bruises from the last battle with his father were beginning to heal, and the small cuts had mostly already healed, but he was sure he'd get a lovely new collection of wounds from their next battle.

Murtagh dressed himself and cleaned his face so he would be presentable, and looked at himself in the mirror. He looked very delicate, with his tiny frame, his sickly pale skin, and the dark circles under his large grey eyes. He could imagine the prince, a tall, muscular teenager, with tanned skin and brown eyes, looking at him with a mixture of disgust and pity.

He made his way through the sleeping palace to the gate, where he waited for the visitors to arrive. Soon later, the his father and the rest of the forsworn came to the gate, and about five minutes later, the guards opened the gates to let in the King of Camelot, his son, and his ward.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **I own neither the Inheritance Cycle nor Merlin.

Soon after the visitors from Camelot had arrived, they had been escorted to the throne room by the Forsworn, King Galbatorix had welcomed them to Alagaesia, and introduced Arthur and Morgana to Murtagh. The king had then dismissed everyone but King Uther from the throne room

Arthur and Morgana were led to their rooms by Darren, and Murtagh followed behind. For Arthur, it seemed that the line between master and servant was blurred, less obvious, and in the fifteen minute walk to his chamber, a kind of friendship seemed to grow between Darren and Arthur. Morgana, on the other hand, spent this time watching the floor and pretending she wasn't there, and Murtagh did the same.

"This will be your chamber during your stay here in Uru'baen," announced Darren , "Morgana, this is yours, and if you need anything, this is Murtagh's chamber, and but I spend more time in it than him," he smiled.

"And," said Murtagh, "I will be training against my father tomorrow, and if you would like to come and watch, I'm sure you would be interested to see my father fighting, even if it is against just me." Arthur nodded, eyeing the scrawny young boy, his gaze lingering on the barely healed bruise over his right eye, probably thinking something along the lines of `This kid probably can't fight one of the peasants in Camelot, he'd be a joke against Morzan!`

"Anyway," said Arthur, grinning, "Morgana suffers from nightmares," Morgana blushed and glared at Arthur "so if you hear someone screaming in the night, it's her."

Darren grinned back, "Murtagh's the same, except he doesn't scream as much as he falls out of bed." this time it was Murtagh's turn to blush and glare. Arthur laughed and walked into the room that Darren had pointed to. "if anyone needs anything, ask Murtagh." Darren said, walking back to the kitchens, where he was supposed to be helping to prepare the feast that would take place the next day.

Morgana and Murtagh stood in an awkward silence for a moment, until finally Morgana asked, "What happened to your eye?"

Murtagh's hand darted for a moment to the dark bruise covering one eye, and said, "It's.. nothing, my father hit me because I was weak."

"He _hit _you?" said Morgana, incredulous, she looked as if she was about to say something, but she closed her mouth again and said instead, "Well, it will be interesting to watch you fight him, I'll ask Darren to wake me when you are about to fight him."

The next day, Murtagh entered the training field with Morgana, Darren, and an unwilling Arthur watching. Morzan and his son fought like they would any other day, Murtagh would do his best to defend himself, and would strike back when he found the smallest hole in his father's defences, he would be stuck down by one of Morzan's heavier blows, and a the sound of leather on flesh would be heard as Morzan's gloved hand struck his son's jaw. They fought like this for an hour, Morzan never being able to undeniably beat his son in the fight, and Murtagh holding on by his fingertips.

After an hour and a half of fighting, the sheer force of Morzan's blow broke through Murtagh's defences, knocking him to the floor, Morzan hit Murtagh on the shoulder with the flat of his blade, and placed the edge on Murtagh's throat.

"Dead." he said, and left his son lying in the dirt, bleeding from numerous cuts and scrapes along his bare arms from the fall or from the blunt blade breaking the delicate skin.

Morgana ran over to help Murtagh up, he shook as he stood, but didn't fall. "Are you alright, Murtagh?" asked Morgana, worried for the health of the boy. Murtagh nodded mutely, panting .

"Don't worry, Morgana," said Darren, "He normally looks like this after training with his father." Arthur's and Morgana's eyes widened.

"Perhaps we should take him to a physician, this cut may get infected" said Arthur, pointing to a rather large scrape on Murtagh's left elbow. "Maybe we should just take him to Gaius, just in case." Morgana nodded in agreement, wincing as Murtagh wiped some small stones out of the cut.

"No," said Murtagh, unaccustomed to people making such a fuss over his injuries, no one had even been this worried when his father had thrown his sword through Murtagh's back, except his mother, who had snapped out of her depressed haze long enough to take Murtagh to a physician, "I'm fine, it's just a scratch."

"Come on," said Arthur, pulling him along gently, "don't worry, Gaius is nice."

"If you don't mind," said Darren, "I am supposed to be helping in the kitchens"

When they entered Gaius' chambers, they found him setting out his various tools, he looked up when he heard Arthur enter. "Hello, Arthur," he said, "What do you need? I'm afraid I don't have everything here that I had in Camelot, though."

The rest of the small group entered and Arthur said, "Well, Murtagh was training with his father, and he fell quite a few times, I was wondering if you could look at the scratches, to check that they're not infected," he then said something quiet enough that only Gaius could hear, Gaius nodded, understanding their concern.

"Come, Murtagh, take your shirt off." Murtagh did as he was told, and Morgana and Arthur tried not to gasp in surprise and pity when they saw the long scar stretching from his shoulder to his hip, the large collection of bruises and cuts covering his back, or how visible his bones were under his pale skin.

Gaius washed the dirt away from the cuts and scrapes, and applied some medicine to the more serious ones to prevent infection, he then warned Murtagh to avoid fighting again for at least a day to allow his wounds to heal.

"Remember, Murtagh," he said, " You won't be able to fight any better with an infected wound."

Murtagh smiled, "Thank you, sir." he said, pulling his shirt on.

"Oh, and Murtagh?" said Gaius, Murtagh looked up, "Where did you get this scar?" Morgana and Arthur looked at him curiously, though they both suspected they could guess what had happened.

"Well.." stammered Murtagh, "When I was three, well, nearly three, anyway, my father, he was drunk at the time, and a man had insulted the king, and, well, I got in the way..." he trailed off, the three visitors from Camelot stared at him incredulously, it was one thing for them to have a theory, and quite another for it to be true.


End file.
